But if you're still dealing with back pain, hip pain, or neck tension — there's a good chance the missing piece has nothing to do with any of that. It's your rotators.
These are the muscles that allow your body to twist, turn, and move through space with ease. When they stop working — and for most people they have — the body compensates. The lower back tightens. The neck strains. The hips lock up.
Day 3 of the Spring Into Action AYAMA Challenge goes straight to the source
We're activating the TVA, the obliques, the multifidus, and the semispinalis — the deep rotators that hold your spine together and keep everything else in balance.
Most people never work these muscles. Today you will. This is the missing piece.
Even as early as 11:15. I was just listening to cues in the morning and not watching. I thought I was not to move the knee so I did not externally rotate the thigh at all and just tried to internally rotate the lower leg. On the video it looks like the thigh is externally rotating. Maybe I was supposed to do that.
@Teri by bringing the foot over across the thigh, if you’re on your right side, it’s external rotation of the right hip joints with a femur and 90°. And then in the other hip rotator exercise we did it would be external rotation with the femur at approximately 75 to 80°. Perhaps less with some other people.
It’s not really possible to externally rotate the lower leg. The knee joints doesn’t allow for rotation really.
@Yogi Aaron I understand what you are saying. I thought putting the hand on the knee was to keep the knee in line with the hip so you did not do the external rotation. "We could talk about it tomorrow but I cannot do class live tomorrow or Friday. I have classes to teach. I could pop on at the beginning tomorrow but then I have to leave.
The activation with the knee bent and the internal rotation of the lower leg and foot, when I did it this morning I got the impression that we were not rotating the upper leg, only the lower. When I watch the video it looks like the upper leg is doing some external rotation. Can you please clarify this,
Yes, today's video time stamp around 12:15
Even as early as 11:15. I was just listening to cues in the morning and not watching. I thought I was not to move the knee so I did not externally rotate the thigh at all and just tried to internally rotate the lower leg. On the video it looks like the thigh is externally rotating. Maybe I was supposed to do that.
@Teri by bringing the foot over across the thigh, if you’re on your right side, it’s external rotation of the right hip joints with a femur and 90°. And then in the other hip rotator exercise we did it would be external rotation with the femur at approximately 75 to 80°. Perhaps less with some other people.
It’s not really possible to externally rotate the lower leg. The knee joints doesn’t allow for rotation really.
@Yogi Aaron I understand what you are saying. I thought putting the hand on the knee was to keep the knee in line with the hip so you did not do the external rotation. "We could talk about it tomorrow but I cannot do class live tomorrow or Friday. I have classes to teach. I could pop on at the beginning tomorrow but then I have to leave.
@Teri I understand your thought process. But it is the femur that external rotating at the hip joint.
The activation with the knee bent and the internal rotation of the lower leg and foot, when I did it this morning I got the impression that we were not rotating the upper leg, only the lower. When I watch the video it looks like the upper leg is doing some external rotation. Can you please clarify this,
@Teri are you referring to this video? Or another one? Can you tell me the time stamp you are referring to?